The Common Admission Test (CAT) is an
all-India test conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as an
entrance exam for the management programmes of its seven business schools.
About 250,000 students took CAT in 2008 for about 1500 seats in the
IIMs. This is said to make the IIMs more selective than the Ivy League
Universities

The test is multiple-choice based with roughly one-fourth negative-mark
penalties for wrong answers, and traditionally comprises three sections that
span the domains of arithmetical problem solving, geometry, statistics, data
interpretation, logical reasoning, puzzles, and English language skills. It
is held on the third Sunday of November each year. The test duration was two
hours prior to year 2006, but since 2006, it has been extended to two and a
half hours. The total number of questions has varied from 180 (prior to year
2000) to 150 (from 2001 to 2003) and has gradually decreased to 75 (in 2006
and 2007). However, in 2008 the number of questions increased once again and
became 90 (40 in Verbal Ability and 25 each in Quantitative Aptitude and
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation). This trend has seen the CAT
evolve from a speed-based test to an exam that evaluates fundamental
abilities of candidates in the aforementioned areas.

The CAT is the first step for admission to the IIMs. After the test, by the
second week of January next year, the IIMs declare exam scores and put up a
list of candidates who are eligible for the next stage of a group discussion
for some IIMs and an individual interview. The scores are relative and are
calculated on a percentile basis for individual sections as well as for the
total. Candidates invited for the next stage usually possess total scores
that are in excess of 99 percentile and, more importantly, also possess
balanced high scores across all the individual sections.

CAT (as it is most commonly known across India)
has evolved from a speed based simple test into a test which demands more
proficiency in concepts and fundamentals.

Earlier CATs (prior to year 2000) had 180 questions to be solved in 2 hours. For
the years 2001, 2002, and 2003 the paper consisted of 3 sections of 50 questions
per section.

In 2004, the IIMs introduced the concept of differential marking for the first
time. The paper had 123 questions in three sections with 50 English, 35
Mathematics, and 38 Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning. The 2005 CAT
contained 90 questions, 30 in each section, each having subsections containing
questions with different numbers of marks.

CAT 2006, conducted on 19 November, was a 2.5-hour exam instead of the
traditional 2-hour exam. The test had 75 questions, 25 questions per section and
4 marks per question, making it a 300-mark paper. There was a penalty of 1 mark
for a wrong answer. The paper also proved to be a break from the previous
pattern in that it had 5 answer options instead of the usual 4. The English
section was generally perceived as difficult,[3] whereas the quantitative
aptitude section was relatively easier than previous CATs as well as in
comparison to the other two sections.

In 2007, the CAT exam was held on Sunday, 18 November. It contained 25 questions
in each of the three sections, each question having 1 mark negative for each
wrong answer and 4 marks for the correct answers. The total marks were 300. This
was the same pattern as CAT 2006.

The CAT paper of 2008 was a contrast as compared to 2007. It had 40 questions in
English and in all 90 questions (25+25+40). For the first time a higher
weightage was attributed to one of the sections. Maths for CAT08 was simpler but
was full of tricks and prone silly mistakes. DI sections for 2008 was the
toughest of the three. The 40 questions in English had been evenly divided for
Verbal Ability(VA) and Reading Comprehension(RC). RC was easier as compared to
2007 whereas VA was tough.(CAT08 results were declared on 9 January 2009)

For CAT 2009 it has been announced by the IIM's that there will be 60-70
questions. The test taker will have 2 hours and 15 minutes to attempt the test.
A 15 minute tutorial will be given to familiarize the test taker with the
computer test taking environment. Another interesting development is that this
time all candidate must sign a NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT before attempting the
test. This will legally prohibit them from revealing any aspect of the test be
it the quantum or difficulty level of the questions, the pattern, or any other
knick knacks about the same. Violation of this legally punishable by a fine up
to 2 lac INR and/or up to 3 years imprisonment. What this effectively means that
those who take the CAT at a later date in the testing window will have no
additional advantage over the earlier test takers. How much is this law
followed, remains to be seen.

CAT 2009The first ever computer based CAT conducted by Prometric during 28'th
nov-7'th dec created a lot news, mostly for the wrong reasons. On the one hand,
technical glitches attributed to hardware problems and virus attacks made sure
that around 8,000 students were not able to appear in CAT in their allotted
slots, on the other hand a lot of controversy around depreciated standards,
repeated questions and different difficulty level for different slots ensured
that people started demanding to have a paper based retest.